IBM recently announced that it is building a new data center near Beijing China. The new data center is set to be among the ten largest in the world. This announcement brings to mind an important subject for consideration. Where is your data warehoused, and why is location even important?
I will address the latter of these two questions first. With the near ubiquity of bandwidth and storage, having your data cross a border, state or otherwise, at some point is all but guaranteed. Though not often considered, not all governments view personal privacy the same. As recently as August of 2008, the Chinese government has been known to lock down data centers to search through archives. Do you know where your provider’s data center is?
Perhaps you are backing up family photos or patient health records. Either way, if you are reading this blog, you care enough about your data to protect it. You also want to know that you are the only with access to your data. KeepVault begins the process by encrypting your data –at the source– using up to 256 bit AES encryption. Then communication with our servers is accomplished using an encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection. This connection prevents would-be eavesdropping while data traverses the Internet.
The final piece of the equation is the data center. All the encryption on earth provides only limited protection if third parties can gain physical access to your data. KeepVault only houses data in places that have laws to protect your personal and business data. Our servers are currently located in California, Kansas, and Michigan, USA. Moreover, as we expand our global network, we will only ever house data in states or countries with similar laws already in place.
The data center is an often overlooked aspect when considering an online backup provider. Those of us who have created KeepVault consider it a sacred bond of trust with our customers. Ensuring your data is safe and that only you have access to it motivates us throughout the day. Rest assured that your data is secure when you use KeepVault backup.
